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Definition of gauge in English:

gauge

noun

1An instrument that measures and gives a visual display of the amount, level, or contents of something:

‘a fuel gauge’

‘To that end, manufacturers continue to refine the location of switches, gauges, and display panels so the operator can see them quickly and easily.’

‘Its new electric utility vehicle features a fuel gauge that displays the current level of battery power.’

‘I scanned the engine instruments and hydraulic gauges and was relieved to find normal indications.’

‘On some equipment, a visual sight glass or gauge shows fluid levels without opening the system, while on others a dipstick or other manual measuring device is used.’

‘Two displacement gauges are installed at the opposite side of the plate, which is averaged to determine the ground displacement.’

‘What is required is a coordinated international system of pressure sensors and water level gauges linked by reliable communications to a centre for the rapid processing, analysis and release of alerts.’

2The thickness, size, or capacity of something, especially as a standard measure, in particular:

‘If you get a good tent, it's 60 gauges, about 130 pounds, it can take care of a family of five to seven throughout the winter, and you can have some items inside the tent that will keep the family warm.’

‘A rough analogy: using a net of a certain gauge will fail to catch fish of a certain size, but these uncaught ones are not a definite category of fish.’

‘We use 16 - gauge aluminum wire, as it is easy to bend and produces a light sculpture.’

2.2[in combination]A measure of the diameter of a gun barrel, or of its ammunition, expressed as the number of spherical pieces of shot of the same diameter as the barrel that can be made from 1 lb (454 g) of lead:

[as modifier]‘a 12-gauge shotgun’

‘This is a luxury the tank provides, a fine opportunity to use a lighter gauge for closer shots.’

‘These targets malfunctioned on at least two stages, especially with 20 gauge ammo, leading to concern about equitable scoring.’

‘There's nothing more fun than a good, lively debate about shotgun gauges.’

‘They both had automatic 12 - gauge shotguns, and I'm going to say that each one was carrying a satchel filled with four boxes of ammo.’

‘It can manage any bore size from .22 to 10 gauge and barrels up to 30 inches long.’

‘Most shooters described it as similar to a 12 - gauge shotgun.’

‘Adapters and wads are available for most handgun and rifle calibers, and 12 - gauge shotguns.’

‘Some of his deep throws died like a duck hit with a bullet from a 12 - gauge shotgun.’

‘In the loft they found a sawn-off, single-barrel 12 - gauge shotgun, a cartridge belt and a number of cartridges which were compatible with the gun.’

‘Reaching for the riding crop and the 12 gauge, I check the oiling.’

‘The thickness of those seven pages is approximately equal to the constriction of a modified choke in a 12 - gauge barrel.’

‘He said he saw a bandoleer, which held 12 - gauge shotgun shells, but no guns.’

‘She said he did not have a permit for any of the weapons he was carrying: a semiautomatic assault rifle, a 12 - gauge shotgun and a pistol.’

‘Heavy gauge sheet materials are used by a variety of industries for a myriad of products.’

‘As each student completed a satisfactory drawing on paper, he or she cut it out and taped it onto a piece of 36 - gauge aluminum foil.’

‘The slats of this blind are made from several different gauges of aluminum.’

‘Self-tapping screws have a special point that resembles a drill bit and are capable of cutting their own pilot hole in light gauge sheet metal.’

‘Sheetmetal comes in different thicknesses, from 16 gauge to 30 gauge, with lower numbers being thicker.’

‘Where necessary, 2x1 planed timber will be used for supporting the polythene, and in all cases only 1000 gauge polythene will be used.’

‘Tension specimens, gage length 25 by 10 mm, were cut along the rolling direction from the following 1.2 mm sheet aluminum alloys.’

2.4The distance between the rails of a line of railway track:

‘the line was laid to a gauge of 2 ft 9 ins’

‘It is the gauge used by almost every railway in North America, but this wasn't always the case.’

‘It owns and runs a miniature railway that has a five-inch gauge track 1,605 ft long.’

‘Narrow Gauge is a description of a railway's track gauge.’

‘Most notoriously, the colonies built rail systems with different track gauges.’

‘Multiple currencies are as sensible as different rail gauges and different power sockets - they are an anachronistic inconvenience and costly.’

‘It cannot manufacture for export because of different gauges used in railways abroad.’

‘What was even more striking was that seven had never seen ‘a railway’ though a metre gauge line runs through the district for almost 1000 miles.’

‘The book ranges over countless topics, from the share market to academia to rail gauges.’

‘Incidentally, the references to the Australian system are to the way its (state-run) railways ended up with three separate track gauges.’

‘The dual gauge rail loop will give trains from regional areas direct access to North Quay in the inner harbour.’

‘Because of different rail gauges, sometimes freight had to be unloaded and then reloaded on boxcars.’

‘To slow them down they built their tracks using a wider gauge.’

‘In Japan they built their Shinkansen lines to a different gauge from the rest of the network precisely because it made it impossible for other types of trains to use it.’

‘Alternatively, we could work with a narrower gauge track for the meantime and upgrade the line as need be.’

‘The colonies built their lines with different gauges.’

‘You couldn't get on the one train and catch that same train all the way round Australia because of different rail gauges.’

‘The gauge on the railways are all different, so that you can't travel any distance by train without having to change.’

‘The angular transducer data are used for the assessment of the track gauge and to determine the trolley wobble between the rails.’

‘They made their rail gauge 5 feet, as opposed to the usual 4 feet 8 ½ inches used by Germany.’

‘While on the Australian federal system, I could also mention that Australia uses three different incompatible railway gauges, and the only states that use the same gauge as each other have no common borders.’

3Nautical archaic The position of a sailing ship to windward (the weather gage) or leeward (the lee gage) of another:

‘the French fleet was heavily outnumbered but had the weather gage’

‘A ship sought weather gage of its enemy, so that it had freedom of maneuver, and could close if it wished.’

verb

[WITH OBJECT]

1Estimate or determine the amount, level, or volume of:

‘astronomers can gauge the star's intrinsic brightness’

‘Doctors are now better at using indirect measures to gauge pain and the effectiveness of treatment, and self controlled analgesia and epidural anaesthesia have been adapted for use in children.’

‘The consultation process is part of a Government exercise to gauge public support for a directly elected regional assembly for Yorkshire and the Humber.’

‘Researchers also recorded the subjects' body mass index - a measure used to gauge obesity.’

‘Targeted mostly at men, the program gauges fat loss through waist measurement, not weight, and encourages lifestyle changes, such as eating differently and exercising more.’

‘While the report speaks glowingly about the positive economic spinoffs of a healthy arts community, measuring a city's culture isn't the same as gauging the impact of, say, its manufacturing sector.’

‘Radar gun readings gauge the raw ability of pitchers, but no such measure exists for hitters.’

‘This approach of measuring user performance helps us gauge the quality of our improvements through successive rounds of refinement of the architecture.’

‘A measure of the popularity of this district can be gauged by the bookings.’

‘The researchers note that their study only measured eye movement, and did not directly gauge a driver's concentration or attention.’

‘The correlation between size - as measured by fanbase - and stature - as gauged by success - used to be universal.’

‘You can only gauge how well any tool works by putting it into action.’

‘The researchers relied on a measure known as body mass index to gauge obesity.’

‘What's the best way then to measure particle pollution so that we can gauge the full impact of diesel exhaust?’

‘To gauge the right quantity of the stabilizer, consult the instructions on its can.’

‘When taken together, these two measurements can help people who engage in addictive behaviors gauge their progression into addiction.’

‘How do we measure democracy or gauge our transformation over the last ten years?’

‘The enzyme's angular torque profile under load can be gauged by measuring the average curvature and the stochastic fluctuations of actin filaments.’

‘The length of his contract is measured in years, but his popularity and competence are gauged from game to game, on a sliding scale that depends largely on what hot coaches are on the market.’

‘That portrait paradigm measured an image's accuracy by gauging its success in representing the precise topography of its subject's face.’

‘They attempted to gauge sediment deposits over that period by measuring core-layer fluctuations in the ratio of barium to calcium.’

‘The measure of what I say can be gauged from our treatment of our emigrants.’

‘I had now learned to gauge her emotional moods like a seismologist reads a Richter scale.’

‘It looks as if our ‘leaders’ are listening to the poor, that they are using the opportunity provided by electioneering to gauge the public mood.’

‘They sat gauging the situation by their mother's expression.’

‘It wasn't just the rain that made me less than enthusiastic as I listened to the speeches and tried to gauge the mood around me.’

‘It's also a valuable and necessary means of measuring the facility department's performance and gauging areas where improvement may be needed.’

‘The big decisions can wait until the summer after he has had a chance to gauge the situation.’

‘Armed with information he could gauge the situation, perhaps simply buying cheap or, more subtly, offering new violins for old.’

‘Whips try to gauge the mood of members, assess how they will express their unhappiness with party policies, and cajole, bully, or conciliate the potential dissident.’

‘By what measures do you gauge your endorsement?’

‘Usually she could gauge his moods but this was an extreme situation.’

‘No longer, then, do we call upon the great books or teachings of western culture to measure our words or gauge our actions.’

‘Not in recent memory has it been so difficult to gauge the prospects for going public, but a veteran entrepreneur helps clear things up.’

‘The toughest part of their work is the futility of using quantitative measurements to gauge performance.’

‘These types really reflect different ways of gauging the validity of a measure of a concept.’

‘In the end the party was a success, and I gauge that on a few measures.’

‘Under that model, teachers, students, and schools are gauged by how their test scores measure up.’

‘But as an election is less than a year away, most political activists will prefer to save their energies for gauging public mood and speculation about who will be bed down politically with whom thereafter.’

‘Leaders should then take the process one step further by setting specific goals - the measures for gauging whether or not they're getting close to fulfilling their mission.’

‘Since then sociologists and pollsters have returned periodically to gauge the mood of Middle America.’